1. Empowering youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business SOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM • MAY 5, 2009
2. ________ % unemployment for youth in MA ________ % unemployment for low income & minority youth in MA ________ % of youth in foster care who obtain a college degree ________ % of MA foster youth under/unemployed when aging out ________ % of youth leaving state custody without a GED/diploma ________ US annual spending to keep youth in locked facilities The Real Deal < 3 75 > 60 > $1 Billion 92 70
9. Leveraged Investment in Youth $1 Billion US Annual Cost to keep youth in locked facilities $70 K MA Annual Cost to keep one youth in locked facilities $10 K More Than Words Investment in Youth (fully loaded annual cost per youth) $56/hour $7 K $8/ hour Cost offset by earned revenue
10.
Editor's Notes
After slides, still slide here Cornelius & Rebecca: Good evening, My name is Rebecca, I am 19 years old and I am a partner at MTW. My name is Cornelius, I am 17 years old and a partner at MTW. We ant you to imagine what it is like in the lives of youth at MTW. Imagine yourself or a young person you know at age 18 (BIG PAUSE HERE) Imagine you have moved to 5 different schools in just 1 year of HS Imagine being bounced around 10 different programs, hospitals and foster homes Imagine you have no education- no GED or diploma Imagine trying to get a job with no qualifications or experience Imagine feeling alone and nobody is there to listen to you Imagine feeling afraid because you are out in the middle of the night and don’t know where you can sleep OK- Stop imagining. This is for real. This is the reality for many youth here in MA and across the world. It doesn’t have to be this way…and we are going to share with you about how we are taking charge of our lives by taking charge of a business. We are More Than Words!
Let’s take a look at some statistics that reveal what too many youth don’t just imagine but experience every day.
How do youth begin to transform their lives? My name is Jodi Rosenbaum and I am the founder and ED of MTW. I have 13 yrs of experience in the child welfare and juvenile justice system and as a public school teacher including with TFA. 5 yrs ago, after a lot of research and planning, I began a pilot to sell books online with a few teenage boys living at a group home. I remember the 1 st time we shipped a book to another country- Charles was sending it to SA nad it was entitled, “How I found freedom in an unfree world.” We looked at ea other, acknowledging the power of the transaction and realized we were onto something. Within less than a year we were opening a storefront with youth leading the way. We are a retail and online bookstore, a café and a fabulous place for open mics and community building. We are small, young and serve about 36 youth per year at the store and another 30 in the community who have moved on and continue to receive support for at least a full yr. But we are powerful… we are a powerful vehicle for transforming how society does this work- to empower young people like C&R to live, love and own their lives. How do we do it? We talk about Question Zero all the time… it is the question that comes before all other questions: What, exactly , are we trying to accomplish? We integrate this into all that we do- talking to our youth about goals and accountability and ownership… And we are relentless, using the entrepreneurial spirit of our business to also develop our lives. Youth are empowered, to have power and be accountable to high expectations and to be connected to a community and matter, often for the first time in their lives. Now going to introduce you to R who is going to break it down how the model works and how she has thrived with this opportunity and these guiding principles to move herself to outcomes.
Rebecca rocks the house here
Rebecca nailed what it means to be at MTW- not just checking off a curriculum and moving through a linear model… life IS complicated and we have a real-world, dynamic model to match that. MTW is not just a 12 wk job training program. It is a real business, with real accountability. Youth learn what it means to take positive risks, be truly in charge of real responsibilities at their business, and to really matter and have a voice. They can then apply this in their lives- learning to advocate and set goals and make things happen. We are not training youth to empty your garbage cans. These are transferable skills for work, college and life…and there is knowledge and power that comes with working with books. And our youth are out there interacting with the community every day in their storefront, at other businesses, Chamber events, and on site visits. MTW is a more sustainable org b/c of earned revenue. This is not just more effective but also more cost-effective because it is a real business. Rather than just teach youth skills, they learn to apply and sustain these skills by running a business that pays for a portion of this experience.
Question Zero-We are very focused on what we are measuring to support youth to reach outcomes. SE is a researchy term…it means owning your life and we measure that by how much youth are moving forward their lives with education, life essentials, etc and by their internal locus of control- how much they feel in charge of deciding how their lives unfold. Rebecca’s personal account nailed this- We are currently in contact with over 70% of over 100 youth we have worked with the last few yrs. We are more than just a program; MTW and their experience becomes part of their story, their lives. Over 70% of youth in contact are in FT education or employment… which is increasingly tough in this economy when there are not a lot of jobs for our youth. Think about the factorial effect. All the peoples in C & R’s lives now and in the future who will benefit b/c of their success.
Where are we headed? There is much work to be done. Always working to improve programming- at the end of the day it is what matters, moving kids on to jobs and college. opportunity to increase # of partnerships, externships and jobs and ed resources for our youth- we have a developing ed coaching partnership with Bentley, and some strong collaborative partnerships with hotels, banks and retail stores, and we want to deepen and grow this. Deepen and codify the model to really understand and learn which levers really move youth to outcomes Increase ER with our new online software selling program and improving our marketing Increase individual donor base to ensure a robust and balanced hybrid model Replicate to a 2 nd site to demonstrate proof of concept and the transferability of this model. Share with others, etc.
ER has slowly grown Allowed us to attract increased subsidized support to build critical capacity such as Transitions program This yr- contract with DCF under support and stabilization- changing the paradigm re how they define that service Moving to grow ER and individual as we undertake strategic planning and map out growth
What does this mean for society and for ea of you? Walk through costs How do you measure the loss of productivity? And how do you begin to capture the value of R & C fulfilling their potential. It is priceless
Cornelius- SO HOW CAN YOU GET INVOLVED IN MTW LOOK UNDER CHAIR FOR STICKER- GIVE PRIZE We all have a Question Zero…. What, exactly, are you trying to accomplish? It is my hope that MTW will become part of the answer to your Question Zero…. We are looking for engaged partners- people who get what we are doing here and who want to help us take it to the next level. Invest in us to drive our youth to outcome, invest in us to grow and demonstrate that we are able to empower youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business Thank you
